09/12/2014

Almost two weeks of classes are over at my fine institution, and I find myself thinking about how hard it is to make a diamond, that is, a physicist. Look at the side by side comparison of the most famous diamond and the most famous physicist:

and you can tell both of these famous things took time and high pressure to produce. See how they sparkle in the light! I want to shteal both of them and squirrel them away in a knapsack.

Today's diamond=physicist needs mentors of all kinds to provide that necessary pressure. Professors. Peers. Parents. Want to work alone? Go ahead, but be sure to check your work by handing it to some human somewhere. And you don't want to believe me, I know you don't, but even this famous guy says mentoring is where it is at and you can't ignore someone who gets paid just to have an opinion.

02/07/2014

This week David Leonard wrote a piece that really got some of my fellow academics worked into a lather, a piece about imposter syndrome. Whenever the discussion of imposter syndrome resurfaces, I feel like the audience is about two decades too old to matter.

Three weeks ago I was on a panel at the Mid-Atlantic Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics. A graduate student mentioned imposter syndrome to the audience of mostly undergraduate women. Most had never heard of it. If anyone needs to know how commonplace it is to feel like a fake, even after the grades and the degree, it's the youngest among us -- I'm thinking middle school.

But lo! What on yonder headline breaks? An online resource many middle school aged folks are reading but maybe shouldn't be. Humor is always a good starting place.

And then maybe someone will forward them the great Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy, where she encourages us to fake it till we become it. Mmmmmmmrrrrrrr.

01/24/2014

What do you see? Yes, yes, a graph. With colors on it. The little colored blobs are where nuclei have made it through the holes of a thick metal mask, to the Promised Land of the Detector, where they have their day in the sun. Yoda speak here: "Relativistic they are. Interesting they must be."

10/11/2013

For the past eight days I've had scores of folks point me to an article by Eileen Pollack, a writer-professor with a BS in physics. Most have asked what I think of Pollack's piece, and what I think is this -- the culture for American women in physics has not changed enough for my liking.

Pollack quietly emphasizes the role teachers have at every stage of the game. Adding more women to the faculty at MIT and Yale is an obvious step in the right direction, but I dream big. What if the women being recruited by MIT and Yale got better offers to teach public middle school in Kansas?

09/10/2013

In my habit of shameless self promotion -- I like to frame it as rejoicing when something good happens -- I offer up my latest essay. I also want to make you smile on this fine Tuesday, so I also offer up sock puppets:

Hopefully you like either the essay or the video. Doubt you'll like both.

07/09/2013

Neither Marie Curie nor I had eyes only for physics and math as children. MC decided at around 18, I was closer to 19. We both had to study our asses off to make up for our “deficiencies” in our math education – hers because she treated poorly as a Pole in the Russian-occupied Polish school system, me because I was treated poorly as a Redneck in the WhiteMoney-occupied Mississippi school system. High academic marks were a fixed target, a singular goal applauded by both our families. As students, MC froze in her attic apartment in Paris and I froze doing overnight shifts in frigid data rooms in Los Alamos, New Mexico. We both met our lifelong loves in graduate school – both skinny physicists with goatees.

Now, here is where you stop and ask, “Who the hell is this woman, comparing herself to Marie Curie? The ego on this one!” But, dear reader, let me assure you that I am fully aware of my shortcomings. Many times each day I am certain that a tree root has more talent for physics than I. But I cannot help myself. Both MC and I used thorium and uranium in our research. We both preferred alternative education for our kids. We have depended on the generosity of American women. MC earned $100k (quite a bit in today’s dollars) by talking up her work to US groups in 1921, and in seventy years later I got a Particia Roberts Harris fellowship for graduate school and a private loan by a group of elderly Mississippi women to help me finish college. Of course, MC got much more than I did. Of course.

Marie Curie was the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. Last year I was promoted, becoming the first female physics professor at my academic institution. So here’s a question -- did Marie’s girlfriends (did she even have any?) ever celebrate her accomplishments? Did they ever take her out two nights in a row when she got promoted like mine did? Did she know the bartender well enough to order a drink, take a sip, then change her mind and not be charged for it? This is an open question.

03/16/2013

Cesium
is flat out gorgeous. No other element has her slippery sheen, her spooky
ability to look simultaneously gold and silver. But beauty comes at a
price -- cesium-137 is extremely high maintenance. First, she's emits
radiation like Joan Collins talks. She's a gamma emitter, so heave on
that lead cooking apron and hope she doesn't ask about it.

She became the talk of the town on
April 26, 1986 when she found her way into the air and water in lovely Ukraine
-- Chernobyl to be exact. Her rise to fame is the darkest black line in
the graph, signifying her ability to come a callin' and just not leave.

So what does cesium-137 dine on
these days? Think crackers, beef jerky, fruit leather. Keep the
soups, the seltzers far, far away because when she meets anything wet, anything with water, there will be
drama, drama involving fire engines and insurance adjusters.

04/16/2012

Last week I had a lovely dinner with seven physics majors from SUNY-Geneseo and my favorite quantum mechanic S J Padalino. I was asked about having kids in graduate school. I did not procreate in graduate school, so I point you to Randi Ludwig, who decided to make a baby in undergrad: